Our Daily Dose of Danger
That is what Cora has dubbed our adventures in Guatemala. Actually we have many doses of danger every day, but yesterday really stood out.
We started the day in class, as usual and all was going well until the last 10 minutes when Tate’s teacher came over and told me that he was not behaving well. I was unhappy, but not surprised. If Tate thinks he can get away with things, he will and I had noticed an escalating situation with his teacher. We made him write a note and threatened just about every privilege he has and he got the message. Today was a much better day.
In the afternoon we decided to go kayaking. The winds were low and the lake was very calm. Perfect. About 30 minutes after we started out, the afternoon winds picked up and our pleasure tour turned difficult. It was hard to paddle against the wind and there were small whitecaps on the water. The kayaks we were in are not made for those conditions and thus Steve and Tate turned theirs over. We were about 50 yards from shore, so not big deal, but Steve freaked out because he thought the kayak was going to sink. At that point Tate starts yelling about his shoes. Apparently he had taken them off in the kayak. I got really mad then because I had told him to keep them on. Cora was crying because she thought Steve and Tate were in danger. It was a typical Windmoeller travel moment. In the end, we got the kayak to shore, Tate’s shoes were still in it-miracles do happen-and all was well.We were all really wet by then so we decided to go ahead and swim in the cold water. In the past week we have observed that many Guatemalans bathe in the lake, so we brought shampoo with us on this adventure so we could do it too. We soaped up, soaked in the water and felt cleaner than we have in weeks. The showers here are very weak so I think we were finally able to get some dirt off that we had been wearing for a while. We also did our traditional naked swim since there was no one else around. (Steve said I had to include that part.) The wind was at our backs for our return trip so no problems except that we were tired. The whole 2 ½ excursion cost Q100-or about $13.
After all that work we were very hungry and still had Salsa lessons to go before dinner so we walked to the “otra lado” for some tacos and pastel de zanahoria (carrot cake). The restaurant we went to was on a narrow street and, as we were leaving, a tourist van was coming down the road. Cora decided to cross the street and when she did, her sandal came off. She stopped and turned around to get it just as the van reached us and time froze as I watched the van come to a stop less than a foot from her head that was bent over to pick up her shoe. I know my eyes were as round as saucers. Everyone’s were. That was scary enough to count for a week of danger.
We then went to Salsa lessons at our school. The instructor was my Spanish teacher Luis. Cora and I have already taken several Salsa lessons so it was nothing new. I need to learn some new moves because I am getting tired of doing the same four steps over and over.Now it is Friday and we have the weekend to do whatever we want. That plan at this time is to do an excursion with our school tomorrow morning. The kids don’t know this yet, but we are going to hike up a mountain. They won’t like that. On Sunday we are going to go on a zip-line tour. I hope our daily doses of danger are on the tame side this weekend.
That is what Cora has dubbed our adventures in Guatemala. Actually we have many doses of danger every day, but yesterday really stood out.
We started the day in class, as usual and all was going well until the last 10 minutes when Tate’s teacher came over and told me that he was not behaving well. I was unhappy, but not surprised. If Tate thinks he can get away with things, he will and I had noticed an escalating situation with his teacher. We made him write a note and threatened just about every privilege he has and he got the message. Today was a much better day.
In the afternoon we decided to go kayaking. The winds were low and the lake was very calm. Perfect. About 30 minutes after we started out, the afternoon winds picked up and our pleasure tour turned difficult. It was hard to paddle against the wind and there were small whitecaps on the water. The kayaks we were in are not made for those conditions and thus Steve and Tate turned theirs over. We were about 50 yards from shore, so not big deal, but Steve freaked out because he thought the kayak was going to sink. At that point Tate starts yelling about his shoes. Apparently he had taken them off in the kayak. I got really mad then because I had told him to keep them on. Cora was crying because she thought Steve and Tate were in danger. It was a typical Windmoeller travel moment. In the end, we got the kayak to shore, Tate’s shoes were still in it-miracles do happen-and all was well.We were all really wet by then so we decided to go ahead and swim in the cold water. In the past week we have observed that many Guatemalans bathe in the lake, so we brought shampoo with us on this adventure so we could do it too. We soaped up, soaked in the water and felt cleaner than we have in weeks. The showers here are very weak so I think we were finally able to get some dirt off that we had been wearing for a while. We also did our traditional naked swim since there was no one else around. (Steve said I had to include that part.) The wind was at our backs for our return trip so no problems except that we were tired. The whole 2 ½ excursion cost Q100-or about $13.
After all that work we were very hungry and still had Salsa lessons to go before dinner so we walked to the “otra lado” for some tacos and pastel de zanahoria (carrot cake). The restaurant we went to was on a narrow street and, as we were leaving, a tourist van was coming down the road. Cora decided to cross the street and when she did, her sandal came off. She stopped and turned around to get it just as the van reached us and time froze as I watched the van come to a stop less than a foot from her head that was bent over to pick up her shoe. I know my eyes were as round as saucers. Everyone’s were. That was scary enough to count for a week of danger.
We then went to Salsa lessons at our school. The instructor was my Spanish teacher Luis. Cora and I have already taken several Salsa lessons so it was nothing new. I need to learn some new moves because I am getting tired of doing the same four steps over and over.Now it is Friday and we have the weekend to do whatever we want. That plan at this time is to do an excursion with our school tomorrow morning. The kids don’t know this yet, but we are going to hike up a mountain. They won’t like that. On Sunday we are going to go on a zip-line tour. I hope our daily doses of danger are on the tame side this weekend.
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